Friday, August 22, 2014

Weekend of Oct 4---NETT---North East Texas Trail.

Well, we're back to themes.

Fellowship and Service---that's what will make this one work.

The North East Texas Trail is a relatively new multi-use trail, a Rails to Trails project begun in the 1990's and still under development---although the part we're contemplating right now represents the first third of the most developed part. Here's an article printed last year in Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine:

http://www.tpwmagazine.com/archive/2013/nov/ed_1_trail/

We're looking at is a 12.7 mile hike, divided into two days on a very easy trail. We'd start at the trailhead in Farmersville and hike approximately 7 miles to a point along the trail twop or so miles north of the town of Merit, then the next morning hike into Celeste. This would require a hiker's shuttle. While everybody else hangs out at the trailhead, a couple of us would drive to Celeste and drop off one or two cars, then jump into another car head back to Farmersville where we'd all head out on the trail. When we get to Celeste, we all pile into the cars there and drive back to Farmersville to pick up our own vehicles.

There are also a number of road crossings where water/food/gear can be cached to make our packs a bit lighter and give us the ability to cook a bigger, better meal for Saturday night.

If you go to that map and then to switch to the satellite photo and follow the trail to Merit, you'll see where FM1101 crosses the trail. In that area, there looks to be a lot of trees and a stock pond is nearby if water for filtration is needed. Now, this trail is made on an old railroad bed, which means its likely higher than the terrain on either side, and there's likely to be barb wire fence on both sides. What we can't tell from that satellite view is how far from the trail is the fence, and is the ground between the fence and the trail level enough for a decent campsite---although with hammocks this is less an issue that it would be if we were camping in tents.

So.

We need to be of service to each other for the shuttle and for a pre-hike recon of possible campsites between Merit and Celeste, and to provide food and water for caching along the way.